Netflix
Seven years ago, Teletubbies introduced the world to a shocking new creation: In a 2015 episode titled “Babies,” eight tiny Teletubbies joined our favorite gang of four—that would be Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po—in the Tubbytronic Superdome. Their names: Ping, Duggle Dee, Ru-Ru, Umby Pumby, Daa-Daa, Mi-Mi, Baa, and Nin.
All of us might’ve thought the original four Teletubbies were babies themselves, given that they still wear bibs to eat and their favorite hobby is big hugs, but not so! It turns out, these wide-eyed, six-to-ten-foot-tall creatures are (somehow) also caretakers! And being that I did not exactly keep up with Teletubbies after graduating to The Big Comfy Couch, this is all information I only discovered recently, when Netflix unveiled its reboot.
The new Teletubbies, which debuted Monday, are as brilliantly bizarre as ever. At the top of each episode, narrator Tituss Burgess welcomes us to Teletubbyland with the same familiar theme song from the original. Everything appears to be just about where older viewers would have left it: There’s still a baby in the sun, but in a subtle twist on the original formula, it’s a diverse rotating cast of infants. Actress Julia Pulo sings in the “Tummy Tales” that still play on the Teletubbies’ teletummies—now with a little (nonfunctional) play button in the middle. (And yes, these giant fuzzy little guys still love repeat viewings, signaled by the words, “Again, again!”)